I only want to express my gratitude for having me.

I don't post alot here anymore and mostly watch , good to see new members tho and welcome !

 

Thank you, it goes both directions.
All of my friends in school were prior service and I thought I would go in the USN (standard USN joke: no, I'm not gay ) before I eventually worked myself almost into homelessness and got into trucking which turned my life around. My dad was like a trucking job detective. Talking to him about driving jobs was like sitting in the film room with an NFL quarterback reviewing the minute details which signaled important, but non-obvious things, that could make a job fit or not fit a driver. I try to provide my weak version of what my dad did for me for others, I'm only expert in my opinions and experiences and mistakes. My previous career & training taught me to see things in a certain way which can be applied to many parts of life, including trucking.

 

We owe you, Marine.
We are helping the next driver we see, like previous drivers helped us. I'm sure you will help many drivers sooner than you expect. Drive like the boss and a cop is in your passenger seat and keep building your reputation daily.

 

No, I don't know anything about that company. I would post a thread about it so that @Chinatown and other drivers might also answer. I always recommend you contact the trucking company and ask the company to have one of their drivers doing the job they would hire you to drive contact you. Then ask that driver, probably going to be a driver they are sure will say good things about the company, to describe last week, last paycheck, schedule, any of the things that are important to you. I recommend you NOT ask questions like "the web site or ad says I could make $X per week/year, is that true?" Do not ask "the recruiter said I could average X miles per week, is that true." You don't want to indicate what you know about the company or what pay, schedule, etc you prefer. Ask what truck stop chains they fuel at, if that's important to you. See if he can give your contact info to another driver with a lot less time at the company, ideally newish at the company. Then do the same process with that driver. There are hundreds of questions that can tell you some things about the company.

You should also ask the company-provided driver what he DOES NOT like about the account, company, pay, schedule, whatever you want. That's a question you can use to judge his honesty, even though you don't know what the correct answers should be. Any answer in the direction of "I love everything" likely means his answers are unreliable. Ask that question near the end so you don't tip him off if he knows why you ask that question.

When I was driving, I retired recently, I would talk to drivers from companies I was interested in while we fueled because me being near my truck and them being near their truck is a signal I'm not another panhandler. The first thing I would say is "hey driver can I ask about what working at your company is really like? Understand many companies offer a bonus to current drivers if they recruit a driver to work for the company. So it's important to not believe everything you hear from them until you've got more than hope what they say is true. The what don't you like about ABC Trucking might be a good first question, now that I think about it.

Think of finding a good job like finding a good pair of shoes. If it fits what is important to you and the price is right, they are good shoes. If they are very high-quality, made by talented artists, cost 10 times more than you will pay, and are too big or too small, nothing else matters. I wouldn't recommend buying the next pair of shoes you see, so you have some to wear. First you define what you need, want, and can tolerate (all of the questions you have) and then the hard part begins.. Which ones of those important things are more and less important than other important things, and by how much? I often could paralyze myself with that part. I over-think things and it's hard for me to avoid it. I also don't have as much adventure spirit as other people. Everyone has their way. My way is my way, not necessarily the right way even though I am 300% sure it's right or I would have another way.

 

First you have to get a job that can overlook your not being in the US for 7 years. There are not going to be many of those so I'm not suggesting you screen those few companies as I've described. Once you have miltiple employers and a year of recent CDL experience then you can screen employers for what you like.